Glaze is the deepest aisle in our shop, and it is the one where people stand the longest, looking a little lost. That is fair. Between Mayco and AMACO alone there are a dozen named lines, and the color charts do not explain what actually separates them. The secret is that each line was engineered for a different job. Once you know the job, the choice gets easy, and this is the guide we give at the counter.
Start with the cone, always
Before any brand discussion, the same rule from our firing guides applies: a glaze must be rated for the cone your clay matures at. A gorgeous glaze fired outside its range will run, craze, or stay raw. Both Mayco and AMACO publish the firing range for every product, and we keep clears and color lines across the range so you are never forced to mismatch. Decide your cone, then read on.
Mayco Stroke & Coat: the classroom and decorating workhorse
If a single product defines low-fire approachability, it is Mayco Stroke & Coat. Its defining trait is that it looks almost exactly the same in the jar as it does fired, which removes the guesswork that scares beginners. You can layer it, paint detailed designs with it, and it stays put. It is opaque, it is forgiving, and one coat reads differently than three, giving real range from a single jar.
This is why it is the default in art classrooms across Texas. A teacher with thirty students and one kiln needs results that match the lid color and survive busy hands. Stroke & Coat delivers exactly that. For decorating bisque, for kids, for anyone who wants what they paint to be what they get, it is hard to beat.
Mayco Foundations and Elements: building toward effects
Mayco Foundations are designed as smooth, dependable base coats, including a useful set of mid-range options, made to be layered and combined. Where Stroke & Coat is about control, Foundations and the Elements line lean into movement and visual texture, breaking and pooling to create surfaces with more depth. Jungle Gems are crystal glazes that bloom into speckled, reactive surfaces in the firing. As you move along that progression, you trade a little predictability for a lot more character. We help makers decide how much of each they want.
AMACO Potter's Choice: the reason people fall in love with cone 6
If Stroke & Coat is the classroom hero, AMACO Potter's Choice is the studio potter's gateway to surfaces that look like high-fire reduction without a gas kiln. This is a cone 5 to 6 line built to break and pool over texture. Brush it flat on a smooth pot and it is pleasant. Brush it over carving, throwing rings, or a textured surface and it does something no flat color can: it thins to a lighter tone on the high points and gathers dark and glassy in the recesses. Layer two Potter's Choice glazes and the interaction between them produces results people genuinely cannot believe came out of an electric kiln. John Britt's Mid-Range Glazes is full of exactly these layering effects, and Potter's Choice is the easiest on-ramp to them.
AMACO Celadon, Shino, Satin Matte, and High Fire: specific looks
AMACO's other families each chase a specific historical or surface goal. Celadon glazes give the soft translucent greens and blues of classical Asian ceramics. Shino reaches for the warm, variegated surfaces of traditional shino firings. Satin Matte offers a soft, low-sheen finish that is lovely on functional ware and gentle in the hand. The High Fire line serves cone 10 potters. When a maker comes in describing a look they saw on a museum piece or a potter they admire, we can usually point straight to the family built to approximate it.
AMACO Teacher's Palette: engineered for the classroom
The Teacher's Palette lines, including the lighter TPL variants, deserve special mention because they solve a problem most glaze lines ignore: the realities of a busy classroom. They are formulated to be predictable, to mix to intermediate colors the way paint does so students can blend, and to behave consistently in the variable conditions of a school kiln. For Texas art teachers, and we work with a lot of them, this is the line designed for your room, not adapted to it.
Underglaze versus glaze, since both brands make both
A frequent point of confusion: both Mayco and AMACO make underglazes, and underglaze is not the same as glaze. Underglaze is colored slip for detail, line work, and imagery. On its own it does not melt into a glassy surface, so it usually needs a clear glaze over it to seal, shine, and make functional ware food-safe. Glaze is the glassy melt itself. Many makers use both together: underglaze for the drawing, a clear glaze on top to finish it. We keep clears matched to every cone so the topcoat matures with the work underneath.
How we actually help you choose
- 1.Confirm your firing cone first
- 2.If you want what you paint to be what you get, go Stroke & Coat or underglaze plus clear
- 3.If you want depth and movement over texture at cone 6, go Potter's Choice
- 4.If you are chasing a specific classical look, ask for Celadon, Shino, or Satin Matte
- 5.If you are teaching, the Teacher's Palette lines were built for your room
- 6.Always test on your own clay and in your own kiln before a full load
That last rule is not optional, and it is the most ignored. A glaze chart is fired on a reference body in someone else's kiln. Your clay, your cone, and your firing schedule will shift the result. A few test tiles before you commit a full load is the cheapest insurance in ceramics. Bring us your clay body and tell us the look you are after, and we will help you pick the line that gets there, then send you home with the tiles to prove it.
